Adventures in web globalization, since 2002
Duolingo is an impressive language-learning app. I can’t say I’ve become fluent on any of the languages offered but I certainly enjoy sampling them. And now you can sample Arabic. …
Imagine if a Brazilian technology company created an online store called Appalachia. And, over the years, Appalachia.com grew to become a global giant, so much so that the company pursued …
Thanks to a heads-up from Ali at CircleID, I discovered a new report by Oxford Information Labs (sponsored by the Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries. The Council of …
I always enjoy skimming through Mary Meeker’s annual survey of global Internet trends (now via Bond Capital). What follows are a few slides that jumped out at me. Let’s begin …
Looks like the most recent WordPress Translation Day was a linguistic success. Here are the details from WP Tavern: Events in 35 countries (see map below) 183 new contributors 12 …
For the 2019 Web Globalization Report Card, we studied the following 13 enterprise technology websites: Autodesk Cisco Systems DHL FedEx HP Enterprise Huawei IBM Intel Oracle SAP Texas Instruments UPS …
Another one bites the dust in China (Amazon.cn), expanding upon my previous post on the challenges of succeeding in China. Wall Street Journal: Amazon’s E-Commerce Adventure in China Proved Too …
I had an OpEd published this week in the Los Angeles Times about the importance of languages — and the slow but steady increase in languages supported by the world’s …
A little more than 15 years ago, I began benchmarking websites for a new report I had in mind, tentatively titled the Web Globalization Report Card. The number one website in …
Lunar New Year has arrived and, with it, the Chinese New Year (and related Asian New Year celebrations). As I’ve done a few times in the past, I thought I’d …
In 2008, Google launched a project called Knol. Remember it? It was designed to replace Wikipedia. Google apparently wasn’t happy that so many of its visitors were quickly abandoning it …
A timely article in The Wall Street Journal (that I only recently got around to reading): “The future’s not here.” American business people once saw China as dynamic, exciting and wide open. Not anymore. To which …
I’m pleased to say that, based on the websites I study regularly, we’ve reached “peak flag.” In other words, at a high level, companies are now beginning to move away …
Wondering what the colors of a flag actually represent? Flag Stories includes an impressive collection, dissection and compilation of the world’s flags into a range of infographics. For instance, you’ll …
Verisign has owned rights to the .com domain for many years, and profited enormously. So it’s no surprise that the company has been eager to see continued profits from language/script-specific …